Peculiar Mode of Expression: Judge Doe’s Use of the Distinction Between Law and Fact

Although Chief Justice Doe probably never constructed a system of general principles on the higher levels of jurisprudence, there have been very few judges who have had a firmer grasp on the workings of the common law or have known better how to manipulate its doctrines and rules. He had an intuition for developing its strengths and seizing upon its weaknesses; to make those challenging his views debate issues along lines he set down. As Dean Pound pointed out, Doe combined “sound legal instincts” with a “thorough knowledge of traditional legal methods,” and this permitted him, even when advancing radical ideas, to force opponents on the defensive. By giving close study to pedestrian matters which few judges of his intellectual curiosity would have detained, he not only learned to master basic common-law tools such as the distinction between law and fact, but became convinced that the unity of legal science could be effected more by procedural and evidentiary rules than by elusive, abstract principles of jurisprudence

Tied to the Elephant: Organization and Obligation on the Overland Trail

The gold-seeking emigrants who went by the overland trail to the diggings of California seldom traveled alone. The few who did were usually men too poor to purchase a share of a wagon or, for one reason or another, unable or unwilling to work their way across the continent as hired hands. Most, however, traveled to the Pacific as part of an organization: either shareholders of joint stock companies, partners in a mess, clients of passenger lines, or members of traveling groups. In addition, there was another legal technique overland emigrants utilized when binding themselves in mutual associations-they made contracts. Most organizing contracts were made east of the Missouri River, frequently before the emigrants left home. An interesting example was negotiated during January, 1849. Called a compact, it was signed by 29 persons agreeing to form an organization that eventually took the name of the Sacramento Company